Prison polling stations?
The announcement this week that the UK Government will consider extending the right to vote to those in our prisons has caused more than a raising of eyebrows, particularly in some of the more sensationalist printed media.
Yesterday I suggested, somewhat tongue in cheek, that in addition to voting perhaps we ought to allow prisoners the chance to leave the boundaries of their environment to undertake their Christmas shopping. In some respects I was also making a point about the absurdity of allowing prisoners to vote.
Voting is a right enjoyed in a free democratic society. It sits alongside many other rights which we enjoy, such as the freedom of association, the freedom to attend educational institutions, to pursue work and leisure opportunities. It is everything associated with our freedom which is at risk if we commit an offence which results in a prison sentence.
Voting at elections is part of the freedom and for these reasons I am baffled as to how the Government, at the insistence of the European Court of Human Rights, can equate the removal of one of those basic freedoms with a spell in prison.
{In an earlier version of this blog I referred to the insistence of the EU. This was an error on my part as the ECHR although a European institution is not regarded as an institution of the EU, however its decisions set judicial precedence for the European Court of Justice and institutions of the EU are also bound to respect the convention.}
Many years ago I visited HMP Cardiff in an official capacity. It was a fascinating insight to what lay ahead for those on their way from Cardiff Crown Court. I also found it to be a terrifying experience. In many respects I have a strong constitution, but on leaving I found myself sitting quietly on the wall in deep contemplation of what I had experienced.
To me the witnessing of what it meant to lose one’s liberty, to live perhaps briefly or for several years in such a restricted way summed up why prison is important. It’s not just about punishing those who commit crimes to ensure that the public can be safe, nor is it just about the prospect of rehabilitating criminals however important this is.
It is about the deprivation of liberty. The restriction placed on an individual as a reminder of what they had done and why the state has chosen to respond by insisting on a prison sentence.
A Government which reinstates one of the basic expressions of liberty and freedom starts to undermine what a prison sentence is all about.